PlayStation Plus: Free Games for April 2016

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PlayStation Plus: Free Games for April 2016

Hi everyone — we’re happy to announce the PS4 Plus games for April. Pilot a warship escaping from a dying star in Dead Star or survive a zombie-infested London in Zombi on PS4.

First up we have Dead Star, a team-based shooter with RPG influence that we are excited to have launch as a Plus game. Dreamed up by the folks at Armature Studio (Founded by key members of the Metroid Prime team!), Dead Star is the result of a “Wouldn’t it be cool if…” process that started with a space shooter foundation and includes elements of strategy and MOBA-like titles.

The result is a 20-player online experience that’s easy to pick up and play, but also offers a great deal of depth (skill trees, ship upgrades, team strategy, and more). Dead Star has been a big hit at shows like PlayStation Experience and PAX South where players are finding something really special.

The second PS4 game this month is Zombi, a first-person survival-horror experience. Zombi really was at the forefront of the resurgence we’ve seen in recent years of genuine survival-horror games. The London setting combined with well-paced gameplay sets Zombi apart from more action-oriented titles. Add in the extra challenge of permadeath and it’s easy to see why this game became a cult hit.

In the last several years we’ve seen a lot of experimentation with the blending of genres. This month’s PS4 titles are shining examples of the kinds of mashups that create a lot of rich and layered gaming experiences.

So, in addition to your opinions on this month’s PS Plus titles, I’d also like to hear about your thoughts on game genres, what you find appealing, and why.

Full Lineup:

  • A Virus Named Tom, PS Vita
  • Dead Star, PS4
  • I Am Alive, PS3
  • Savage Moon, PS3
  • Shutshimi, PS Vita
  • Zombi, PS4

See you in the comments section. Enjoy.

Comments are closed.

666 Comments

  • Completely uninterested. I think over the last year, I’ve gotten some better deals through PS+ sales, but 90% of the games on offer have left me absolutely bored. I’m gonna start voting with my wallet. The service has no longer been worth $50 a year, as a customer uninterested in the games and uninterested in most online multiplayer. If they decide to start offering good games again, I will consider reinstating my subscription.

    I support Sony in most endeavors, but the drop in quality in PS+ has been very apparent.

    • Ugh, crap. Just remembered that without PS+, I won’t be able to use the cloud for my save games. That definitely will influence my decision to resubscribe or not. I may be caught in a corner here.

    • You can backup to a USB drive occasionally, that’s what I plan on doing. The service is definitely not worth the money.

    • Buy a USB flash drive. I have both to save games and it works like a charm. More owners should take heed of this.

  • wow, I don’t have a PS4 or vita been subscribed to PS+ since it launched. Game selection has been pretty much a garbage for me as a PS3 owner. might not keep my Sub in August if the selection doesn’t improve.

  • Zombi, you say? Quick, queue the Cranberries on Spotify!

  • Are they even trying anymore?

    • I don’t think they’re even trying to compete with Games with Gold, feels like they’ve not just given up on that but on the customers giving feedback each month

  • Why’d you guys stop including all the titles in the video and only do the PS4 titles now?

    Not too excited for the PS4 games and I guess I’ll go look and see how the other games look before I try to download any when they go live.

  • I think it’s time to retire the PS3 and Vita games.

    • Ummm… No! I love getting those still. Flange Over was pretty great on Vita!

    • Haha, Flame Over

    • I hope that’s what is going on. Cause majority ps+ subscribers are ps4 owners. Basically meaning ps4 owners also paying for PS3 and ps vita games (which never going to be played), since PS3 and ps vita are minority

    • @Akmaljon

      According to Sony’s own numbers, they sold 80 million PS3 consoles by November 2nd, 2013 and 36 million PS4 consoles by January 3rd, 2016. Any way you look at it, PS3 is the majority and not the other way around.

    • @steeler192 it was 3 years ago, and most probably not using since they have ps4. But, I am talking about ps+ subscription not console owning. Most ps+ subscribers are ps4 owners since its required for online play.

    • @Akmaljon

      I think it’s very naive of you to think that since November 2013 Sony completely stopped manufacturing new PS3 consoles and consequently no new sales have happened since then. Seriously, the PS3 Super Slim was released that same year…

      I’m 100% sure not every PS4 owner is a Plus subscriber, and even if a Plus subscription is not required for PS3 online play, I’d wager there are still more active PS3 Plus subscribers out there. Really, the number of PS3s sold is just that big.

      Even when you say “most probably not using since they have PS4”, that would mean people own both generations and get value from Plus’ free PS3 games.

      Even more. PS4 was released over two years ago and every single week the PS Blog reports at least one PS3 game released. Every. Week.

      And finally, I bet you dollars to donuts that if Sony stopped offering free PSP, Vita and PS3 games with Plus, we wouldn’t get a larger amount (or same quantity but pricier) free PS4 games.

  • If only Zombi supported Vita second screen to bring it to parity with the OG Wii U version… Oh well…

  • Seriously Sony as much as I love the free games could you please start to add an early alert or something to the store when you’re about to buy a game that’s going to be on ps+ the next month. I would’ve liked saving that money on Zombi

    • I doubt that is going to happen. As I mentioned earlier, this is Sony’s last ditch effort to sell you something to make money before they put it on Plus for free. It has been a trend to quite a few games lately. They will offer then in various sells over the course of 6 months or so, then it will show up free on Plus. Think back how many times Zombi was offered in a PS Plus sale of some kind. They recirculate the same games and include them in different sales each quarter or 2. It wasn’t that long ago we had a Metal Gear sale.Guess what is posted on the store currently? I suspect in the next 6 months, one of those MGS games will show up free on Plus.

    • LOL, Steam does this! Buy full price, next day it’s 75% off. From a business standpoint I’d not give an advanced warning. Sony makes money from this and it’s not illegal. Shady and greedy, perhaps.

    • “Think back how many times Zombi was offered in a PS Plus sale of some kind”

      Answer: One. About 6 months ago.

      If you buy a game in a sale, leave it unplayed for 6 months, and realize it’s going to be given away for free, you don’t get pity or the right to complain.

  • Honestly, I think the only option Sony might consider at this point would be to bundle PS Now with PS Plus. Of course, I don’t see that happening until 2017 at the earliest. Don’t bank on AAA titles for the PS4 any time soon, it isn’t in their best interest from a financial standpoint to offer them and they don’t have to. I will say, in the process of this, they will lose subscribers who will convert over to Xbox Live. As someone mentioned earlier, Microsoft may not be winning the console war but they are winning the online war. They are offering better games at this point than Sony and you get to keep your Xbox 360 games even if you don’t renew. Sony doesn’t do that. No pay, no play. I have both systems and subscribe to both services. As a long time fan of Sony, the only benefit I get at this point is PS Plus discounts (some are debatable due to over inflation of price) and online access to games on my PS4. I can’t say if I will ever drop PS Plus but I would like the powers that be to take a look at some things and improve what they are offering to their customers.

  • That’s funny. I just got Zombi earlier this month because it was on sale, and now it’s free. It’s okay, I got it as part of the $20 Far Cry 4/Zombi bundle before they realized it wasn’t priced correctly.

    • Exactly, see my post above about Sony and their sell tactics. If you watch the sales and watch the PS Plus free games, this happens often. It’s one of their business strategies.

    • You’re grasping at straws, man…

      Xanthus179 just said the bundle was priced incorrectly and he took advantage of Sony’s blunder. If you decide to buy a game now it’s because you’re getting a good deal now. No one can force you to make a purchase against your own judgement. If you can’t handle buyers remorse, I suggest you hold off indefinitely. Or better, complain that Sony should read our minds.

  • Blah month again.

  • Wasnt I am Alive just free last month? Cuz its in my library and I sure didnt pay for it.

  • Keep it up SONY, never give any AAA game to these greedy gamers. Let’s see how long you can go with this trend.

  • Still waiting on my Japanese retail Vita games to come to Plus.

    Not interested in this lineup. And quite frankly, I haven’t been for ages.

  • You know what Xbox players are getting this month?

    Sunset Overdrive
    The Wolf Among Us: Season 1
    Saints Row The IV
    Dead Space

    Don’t get me wrong, I am interested in Dead Star, but isn’t a game like that going to be more popular with people who have friends to play it online with who can voice chat since people are saying it’s a MOBA styled game? I’m with a lot of other people; give us stuff like:

    Infamous Second Son
    Knack
    Killzone Shadowfall
    Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection (on the special occasion since Uncharted 4 is coming out next month)
    The Last Of Us Remastered
    Little Big Planet 3
    Final Fantasy X-X2
    Beyond Two Souls
    Heavy Rain
    Basically any remaster of any old GOOD game would be acceptable just to expand a lot of peoples PS4 libraries.
    God of War 3: Remastered (seriously, how hard is this?)

    In the words of Ellie: “Ya know what, no! How about, ‘Hey, thanks for subscribing to our service and dealing with the fact that you have to pay to play online! Here’s a free AAA every other month or so!’ Ya got ANYTHING like that for me Sony?!”

    And Sony (being Joel in this situation) responds with: “…….Just keep paying…”

  • Personally I think you guys should just can PS3 and Vita at this point, or one of the two, and focus on PS4 getting four games a month.

    That, or offer up a choice of four games, everyone gets to pick two of them. Or hell, have one indie, and a choice between two-three and everyone gets to pick one for themselves.

    Dead Star could be interesting, Zombi…isn’t terrible, but how freaking old is that game at this point?

    PS3 and Vita are just not good. Seriously.

    Like, do you guys NOT notice that people commenting on articles every month, people on sites like Gamefaqs and Gamespot, etc etc, videos on YouTube are constantly saying how Plus is getting worse and worse as time goes on?

    You want to see good lineups, look at Games with Gold for the last several months, they’ve been better EVERY. SINGLE. MONTH.

    For quite some time now.

    • I agree with everything here… I can take or leave the PS3 support, but I do think there is still a degree of value in the system. Some stuff is still really fun. I think they should offer a choice of four games, and if they scrap the older console support, give us four games for PS4. And yes, the lineup of games PSPlus offers is not ANYWHERE NEAR the quality of titles Games With Gold dishes out, and that’s on a monthly basis.

  • I Am Alive? That was already a free game recently on PS3…

  • Can’t wait until my subscription ends next month. NOT renewing will be extremely pleasurable. Even if the lineups come around, I suspect I’ll renew on a monthly basis IF AT ALL. I feel so cheated with the lineup for the past year that I might not renew just on principle.

  • Zombi is a step in the right direction.

    The reason we’ve been getting so many indies is because the ones that go up are more likely to make more from the PS+ deal than they are in their games lifetime without due to mediocrity. So the devs win and Sony gets to say they gave us something for the month.

  • IM ***** TIRED OF 2D SPACE SHOOTER INDIE GARBAGE….AND DONT FORGET THE TOWER DEFENSE GAMES….

  • Ok so this is the lineup for April?

    Full Lineup:
    •A Virus Named Tom, PS Vita
    •Dead Star, PS4
    •I Am Alive, PS3
    •Savage Moon, PS3
    •Shutshimi, PS Vita
    •Zombi, PS4

    Is so we get I Am Alive, PS3 in March and April…ok

    • Yeah I said that too… Wth?

    • I Am Alive was given for free because Sony made a mistake. Check out this month’s lineup and you’ll come to the realization it was given away instead of Super Stardust HD until Sony noticed the error and fixed it.

      You can’t complain you’re “getting the same game two months in a row”, it would be petty…

  • Please stop giving us top down indie space shooters. Please.

  • Zombi YEAH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Well that settles it for me. As someone who only owns a PS3 the games haven’t been worth the price of the sub. I won’t be renewing when it expires next Tuesday.

    I am someone who follows through and doesn’t just complain. I decided to go with Xbox this cycle and have been really enjoying the GwG service. I’ll be heavily investing with the competitor and they’ll probably keep me for a long time with their back compat and future compat support. What reason will I have to come back to Sony?

    • The Games With Gold customer support is also top notch. They actually gave me a free game and a year subscription for an issue I had once because I was a member for so long. The games you get each month are also way better.

    • If PS3 is all you got, I’d go without PS+ as well (All online stuff does not require a PS+ sub, unlike PS4). Plus the fact that… yeah, the PS+ freebies became stale, especially on the PS3 side.

      XBone, as of late reminds me so much of what PS3 was like the last gen. This is why we, as consumers need competing manufacturers.

      Go for it, man.

      You’re probably aren’t going to miss much, if PS+ freebies were the reason you had a PS3.

      I cannot leave the PlayStation, not just because they got Naughty Dog and Santa Monica, but all the nifty stuff they pump out in Japan (which will never come to XBox).

    • If you’re only interested in one service I think you’ve made the right choice, PS Plus has lost it.

      Personally I’ll have both so I can play online with friends on either.

      You’re likely to get much better value for money making that switch, good to see someone taking a stand if it wasn’t for the online play on the ps4 I’d be likely to do the same.

  • I played Zombi back when it was a Wii U Exclusive…Great game … Best game we’ve gotten in Months.

  • Zombi for those who dont know is actually Zombi U for the wii U except without the pad. witch is fine not the same though but what eves looks to be a great lineup this month cant wait to try i am alive :D

  • Again, a list of free games that dont interest me. Only I Am Alive interests me, but I already own it. Sony It would be nice from you if you give some compensation to players who pay PS plus and own games from the list. I understand that everyone has to start somewhere but I do not want to play games India. They dont interest me. For me personally, it is almost all indie games total nonsense. I think even mobile games are bether then Indie games, even 8bit games are bether then most of indie games. If you instead India games. Give free playstation 1 or playstation 2 games. Which will go to play on playstation 3 it will be better. I also think that it would be nice to expand the list of games of playstation 1 and playstation 2. I’d like to play Parasite Eve 1 and sypho Filter 1.2 or Resident Evil outbrake on mi ps3 or ps4 console. Thank you for reading my comments and have a nice day.

  • Galak-z, Super Stardust HD, Dead Star… potato, potato.

  • That video has A LOT of dislikes, would you care to explain, Sony?

  • Not interested. Just more space fillers on your hard drive; especially on the PS4, which could be a liability if you haven’t upgraded.

  • F**K YOU $ony!!!!! F**k you! Your service is GARBAGE. Mark my words, I’ll never buy another $ony Console or product of Any kind again.

    • Relax, man…

      It’s not like your gaming life depended on PS+ Freebies.

    • Yet you will be here next month saying the same trash with your PLUS membership still active. Gtfo

    • I have no choice A-holes, with out PS+ my PS4 is virtually useless. Every game connects to the internet in some way. Go away mouth breathers.

  • Zombi and I Am Alive are improvements from last month but PS Plus is awful these days compared to Games with Gold.

    Really sick of the indie games overall though, there have been a few decent ones but most of them are garbage.

    This month might seem ok if it weren’t for how bad last month was, I was sure we’d get a much better lineup this month if things were going to improve.

    Another thing i’m sick of is how stupid the voting is when it is an option as well, sure voting for games I like the idea of thats good. Whats not good is the games we end up voting for, this is purely going off the return of vote to play last time all three choices were rubbish.

    I like to game on both consoles and try not to favour either too much really and just enjoy the games, its getting hard not to favour Xbox in comparison recently when PS Plus is becoming so frustrating.

    I see comments on the games released month after month saying people are sick of the indie games, its about time PlayStation started to listen to its customers and fans.

  • Always entertaining to come and see the comment section on “Next PS+ Lineup”!

    I actually like the PS+ games that they offer.
    If it weren’t for it, I would have never tried games like Hotline Miami, Spec Ops: The Line, Vanquish, Resogun, and so on, all of which I became a fan of.

    Those of you asking for old AAA games need to visit your local retailers.

    I mean, I would be somewhat “pissed” if they gave me the games I already own.

    But, as a consumer, you have the right to voice your opinion, I guess.

    April onward will be crazy. Dark Souls 3, Uncharted 4, Yakuza, FF XV to name a few.

    Do you really want mediocre two-year old games at this point?

  • THANK YOU SONY!!

  • For the Fools of April! LoL

  • not as good as the x1’s april lineup, but definitely the best lineup ps4’s igc has seen in a long time.

    hopefully this is the start of things moving in the right direction.

  • Honestly, guys. I was a very proud PS+ owner way before PS4 and it was a great deal. I’ve discovered awesome games otherwise would have never played. Remember Me, Devil May Cry, Demon’s Souls, Borderlines, Saint’s Row, Spec Ops The Line…and more.

    Lately these games offered …I don’t even want to download them anymore. I’ve try them out and they’re mostly bad.

    Please step up and make this a good value service as it once was. This isn’t a rant against indie games, just against bad games in general.

  • Shutshimi and A Virus Named Tom for Vita? Seriously? I just want to cry and leave.

  • PS+ costs less than $5 a month, and unless you buy pretty much everything all the time, you’ll almost certainly get that amoun back a few times over every single month. Of course, we don’t get to make the selecion of games. Now, if you think you can buy any AAA game for $5, even if it’s 3 years old, I’d suggest you’ve abandoned reality in favor of delusion and Sony will probably be fine without your precious monthly $4.17.

  • I switched to PSN for exclusives (Persona 5 and Danganronpa 3) and besides those exclusives I am starting to regret not buying the Xbox VCR Player

  • We all know that we are getting crap games because Ps4 is dominating the market, i mean , you have to be straight retarded to not realize whats going on. In the ps3 era the xbox 360 was the dominating console, that’s why we got great aaa free games. I think it should be the other way around, Sony is making a lot with sales , they should at least give a decent AAA from time to time. I personally dont care because i buy all the games i like day 1. Zombi is aaa, yes, but we all know that the game is the aborted child from the wii u, its just bad, there are better indies than zombie.

  • Thought we got “I am alive”for free last month but I looked we didn’t. For some reason I got I am alive last month for free!

  • Having already played Dying Light I’ll probably pass on Zombi. It looks like it has about 1/4 of the quality. Looks like Dead Star is online only too? Which is too bad I really like the concept but I’d rather play alone. Why do I have a feeling it’ll be one of those games where people can pay real money to buy better ships? PS3 offerings seem pretty meh. I can’t believe people are excited about I Am Alive because from what I remember that game was barely even completed and didn’t live up to the hype it generated so it was just swept under the rug… Maybe that was a dream I had? I’ve never heard of Savage Moon before but it looks just… awful. Out of the massive library of PS3 games that’s what you came up with? That being said it outdoes last month’s picks by leaps and bounds which is kind of pathetic. Atleast we’re getting some stuff that’s in 3d.

  • What a trash.. *sick*

  • It looks like “Enjoy.” in the end is a sarcasm %)

  • I’ll take this very interested in playing dead star. Heard zombi was already pretty mediocre on wii-u so i will be finding out for myself :D

  • Why do we have i am alive again is it because near the end of the month they removed it from ps plus and replaced with super stardust hd

  • Another month, another handful of C-tier games. Think I’ll let my subscription lapse once I’m finished with Destiny.

  • These are getting crappier and crappier. Seriously, we haven’t gotten anything worthwhile in almost a year. If it weren’t necessary to play online I would definitely cancel my PS+ subscription.

  • I’m stoked for Zombi. it was great on Wii U, can’t wait to get into it on PS4. most of the rest of the lineup, however…. it straight into the trash. especially the Vita titles. if I wanted to play free cell phone games, I’d play free cell phone games on my cell phone. as far as the PS3 is concerned, I already got I Am Alive last month when you guys screwed up (which by the way I was hoping was an admittance that you guys had the worst lineup ever last month) and the other game is yet another tower defence game. tower defence is probably the worst genre ever. and the other PS4 game, Dead Star… seems suspiciously like several boring space titles we’ve got in that past few months. hell, it looks almost exactly like one of the (completely forgettable PS4 games we got last month) how many 2D space shooters can you give us?

    good job on Zombi. the rest of it is the usual middle finger you choose to give your audience. and why did you get rid of the poll for last month’s games? there hasn’t been one since August last year. I’m assuming it’s because you guys got tired of the (valid) negative feedback.

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